Mallika Sarabhai: They fast for a life with dignity

As you read this, the chief minister will be already on his second farce. This time the junket has moved to Dwarka. Will the always appropriately dressed CM be wearing a pitambar and a peacock feather or will he align himself like the males of the Bhakti movement to the fasting Radha and be dressed in a ghagra choli and odhni?

Meanwhile, as usual, the real protest fast remains neglected. Close to 3,000 government employees are on an indefinite hunger strike opposite Pathik ashram in Gandhinagar, protesting against exploitive working conditions.

They are members of Gujarat Industrial Security Force brought into being during Shankersinh Vaghela's tenure as chief minister parallel to the Border Security Force. They were supposed to be elite security for the government, trained as police personnel and promised the same wages. Today, they guard the Vidhan Sabha, all collectorates in Gujarat, courts, public hospitals, polytechnics and are deployed in the revenue and sales tax departments.

My first encounter with the women personnel of the force was when I was taken into custody with widows of the victims of the hooch tragedy, called the Lattha Khand. We were at the Vidhan Sabha to get a hearing and compensation from the chief minister but were arrested when we gathered outside the gates. In my conversation with these women personnel, I learnt that they were being paid a paltry Rs3,200.

"Ben, can you imagine running a household with this sum?" they asked me. You must fight for your rights, I told them. A few months later, several men from the force came to see me with more tales of such exploitation. My answer to them was the same.

Five days ago, close to 3,000 of them stalled work and sat on a hunger strike. Even after 14 years of work, they are paid Rs 4,500 a month. No perks, no allowances for outstation postings, no bonus other than what gets cut from their salary each month and given in a lumpsum on a yearly basis. They work 365 days a year, often 20 hours a day. They are usually posted away from their hometowns with no extra allowances whatsoever. If they go on leave, they are threatened with dismissal.

No maternity leave is granted to women and if they do not report even in the last week before the delivery, they are summarily dismissed. One woman sitting on the fast told me, "I was on my feet till I felt my water break and was rushed to the nearest government hospital. My mother was called but she arrived only after my child was born. Three days later, I had to be back at work. I could not even breast-feed my child.

In addition to these conditions, there are scams. Shoes worth Rs200 are given to them once a year but billed at Rs1,200. Rs470 is cut from their salary every month for their uniforms. A further cut is made in their salary to allegedly get them medical allowance under ESIC. This money disappears before it reaches ESIC and thus is never available for coverage when they go for medical interventions.

I am not a lawyer, nor an expert on labour rules and regulations. However it is evident to anybody with a basic grounding of law that every law protecting workers is broken here.

Except for a vague assurance from home secretary Antani that things will improve, not a single minister or department head or secretary has even bothered to meet those fasting. Close to 50 of them have been rushed to Gandhinagar Civil Hospital including one with severe heart attack and another with kidney stones. Doctors have advised them to go off the strike. Both, however, continue to refuse food.

I do not know of any other case in independent India where so many personnel of the security forces meant to guard us have en masse observed fast, demanding nothing more than a life with dignity. Will Mr Modi stop his farce and listen to real tragedies of this state?